


The Winter Family

by ariwilde



Series: The Enchanters [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Bisexual Male Character, Bisexuality, Fantasy, LGBTQ Character, M/M, Magic, Wizards
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25489900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariwilde/pseuds/ariwilde
Summary: Old legends said that, a long time ago, there was another species that inhabited the human world. Their name was Enchanters, and they had magical powers.There were Enchanters whose powers were influenced by the seasons, and others who weren't. But one thing that they all had in common -- magical powers differed from one person to the other. There were Enchanters who barely had powers at all, and they were called Hybrids, because they were descendants or offspring of both Enchanters and humans. But there were also Hybrids whose powers were weird, unexplainable, uncontrolled.Then, one day, the Enchanters simply disappeared.Most people considered these legends stories of old, like King Arthur or the Holy Grail. Fascinating tales, but hardly believable.Still, there was still proof that people like them might have existed long ago. There were people who claimed they had met Enchanters, others who sold their old books or artifacts. Some people did not take a side, but thought it would have been thrilling if Enchanters had existed after all.I was one of these people.
Series: The Enchanters [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1846474





	1. Where I tell the reader everything about my boring life

Old legends said that, a long time ago, there was another species that inhabited the human world. Their name was Enchanters, and they had magical powers.

There were Enchanters whose powers were influenced by the seasons, and others who weren't. But one thing that they all had in common -- magical powers differed from one person to the other. There were Enchanters who barely had powers at all, and they were called Hybrids, because they were descendants or offspring of both Enchanters and humans. But there were also Hybrids whose powers were weird, unexplainable, uncontrolled.

Then, one day, the Enchanters simply disappeared.

Most people considered these legends stories of old, like King Arthur or the Holy Grail. Fascinating tales, but hardly believable.

Still, there was still proof that people like them might have existed long ago. There were people who claimed they had met Enchanters, others who sold their old books or artifacts. Some people did not take a side, but thought it would have been thrilling if Enchanters had existed after all.

I was one of these people.

Mr and Mrs Barnes were not rich, but they knew how to throw a party. They were my family, my adoptive family. 

I was sitting in a corner of the living room, reading a book about the Ancient Families. It was one of the most exciting legends about the Enchanters. It said that, once, there were six families in England, back before surnames were invented. They were the most important six families of Enchanters. Then, when family names were invented, they started taking their names after their Special Powers. They were called the Winters, the Summers, the Rivers, the Springs, the Autumns and the Embers. Their powers were affected by the seasons or by natural elements. 

Evelyn and Lucas Barnes threw a Christmas party every 20th of December. I wouldn't have been in a corner reading a book, if they had invited my friends. But they never did. Every year, they would invite their friends, colleagues and my cousins, uncles and aunts. I did not get along with my cousins. It seemed as if we belonged in very separate worlds.

So, mostly to spite my adoptive mother, I was sitting in a corner reading a book when everybody else was listening to classical music and dancing. My adoptive mother and I often argued, but she was the only mother I had. I decided to stop reading and joining my cousin in one of their activities.

I bumped into my adoptive mother. She looked at me with a look of disdain. Then, she looked at my book.

"You know what I think about those legends," she said, matter-of-factly.

I knew. Mrs Barnes was one of those convinced that the Enchanters had never existed. That their artifacts had been crafted by people who robbed people like me of their money. There was a place where you could buy things like that book -- it was called the Arcane Trade and there was one every Saturday in most cities of England.

"Everyone could have written that book, you know," my adoptive mother added. "Get these ideas out of your head. Start living in the present. Even if the Enchanters had existed once, what does have to do with us?"

I nodded. When it came to my adoptive mother, I was not as loudmouthed as I usually was. I knew better than to argue.

I had always thought Mrs Barnes and I started fighting about almost anything when I was a teenager. She must have loved me before then, I thought. The truth was, I could not remember a time in my life when we got along. I had heard her arguing with my adoptive father, once. She had said that she had never wanted a son, that it was him who had convinced her to adopt. But, when I grew up, she saw that she had been right. There was no way she could come to love me like a son, she said.

"Ryan Alexander," my adoptive mother said, looking at me with her icy blue eyes. "Get up from this chair. Now. I won't ask you twice."

Before things could get ugly, my adoptive father stood between the two of us.

"I already talked to your cousins," he told me, smiling. "They agreed to join you for a game of darts."

I smiled back at him and thanked him. Darts were one of those games that were considered party appropriate by my adoptive mother that I was actually good at. 

When I joined my cousins in the living room, I was feeling pretty grateful that I had avoided a fight with my adoptive mother. I only had my adoptive father to thank. It was easy to see that he treated me like a son, easy to understand how he could have managed to convince my adoptive mother to adopt me. His only flaw was his weak personality. Most of the time, before he could interrupt a fight, my adoptive mother had already done too much damage to our relationship.

"Hey," my cousin Darren greeted me. He was aloof, and had a heart of stone. He looked like he could have been my parents' son more than I did. I didn't think this detail was lost on him -- in fact, it was him who reminded me every time.

"I swear, with every passing day, that you look more and more like aunt Evelyn's son," he said then.

"What?" I asked. There was a part that wanted me to feel like the Barnes were my real family, before Evelyn had ruined everything. But I didn't want to start looking or acting like her to earn a place in the family.

"I was just joking, relax," he said. He threw a dart and landed it right in the middle of the dartboard.

"I think he looks just like uncle Lucas, his father," my younger cousin, Amanda, said. She was very young, six years old. I realized that maybe no one had ever told her that I was not her biological cousin.

"He has been adopted," Darren told her patiently. "That's why he doesn't look like anyone."

I didn't reply at his words, trying not to make them sink. It was true. I did not look like my adoptive parents. They both had blond hair and cold blue eyes. They were tall, both taller than me. I had chocolate brown hair and green-blue eyes. I stood at 5'7 and I acted nothing like them.

I threw the darts and landed three of them in the middle of the board. It had occurred to me that maybe my cousin was acting that way because he was jealous. Jealous of the fact that my parents threw parties, and that they looked like they were rich even though they weren't. Jealous of my aim every time we played at darts, and he lost. Still, I didn't want to lose on purpose.

After I had won the game, we went to the kitchen to get something to eat.

"After the holidays, my mother will be able to tell you if you have landed the job at her factory," my cousin Darren told me.

"She better give me that job," I grinned. "If she doesn't, I'll have to be my mother's assistant again at her beauty parlour."

"I seem to remember you weren't a great hairdresser," he commented.

"I'm just not cut for it," I shrugged. I smiled at my stupid pun.

My cousin liked to tease me. I didn't think he did because he liked me. It was certainly the other way around. Still, I let him do it. At least, if he could be honest with me, I could be honest with him.

"Seems the only thing you're good at is throwing darts," he commented.

"Seems like you're not even good at that," I grinned, and drank my fruit punch.

I thought about my job prospects. I didn't want to work at my aunt's factory. Her family could not stand me, and the feeling was mutual. The only job I ever liked, one of the ones I've had, was being my adoptive father's assistant. He was an architect. I had always wanted to be one, just to prove myself that we were similar after all. But I sucked at Maths.

Lucas Barnes had had his faults, in raising me. He could never really treat me like the son he'd never had, because he felt guilty that he adopted me and couldn't give me a mother that loved me. So, he acted distant and cold too. He once told me, in not so many words, that maybe I would have been a good architect if I had been his son. But, since we did not know who my parents were, who knows if I had inherited any talent from them, and what kind of talent it was.

One thing I was interested in was magic. Tarot cards, alchemy, the legends of the Enchanters, whatever. I had always thought my dreams could predict the future. I loved reading, writing, playing and listening to music. But it seemed like there wasn't any job I could do with these skills, if I didn't want to go to university.

The reason why I wasn't going to university was that I had wanted to go to one in London, but couldn't afford it. My high school friend Wallace went there. He was studying to become a dancer, and I could have studied music.

My adoptive mother went to the table to grab a drink.

"Hi, mom," I said. I barely ever called her that. I was not exactly one to hold grudges, but sometimes I could hold resentment better than anyone else. The day my adoptive parents told me I had been adopted, her and I got into a huge fight. She told me that at least I knew I didn't have to call them mom and dad if I didn't want to. I knew she was only saying it out of spite, but after that episode it had always felt wrong to me to call them mom and dad. While the years passed, I stopped doing it almost completely.

"Ryan has been making comments about the fact that I suck at darts," Darren complained.

"But you do suck at darts," Amanda said.

Sometimes I wondered whether my younger cousin could turn out to be better than her brother. We definitely shared the same sense of humour.

"Ryan," Evelyn said. Her eyes looked even more icy and blue when she got angry at me. "How many times have I told you that you have to behave in public?"

Mrs Barnes had this idea that since I was less composed than she was, I must have had some problem communicating with other people. True, I was socially awkward at times, and rebellious and lively at others. I also was aware that I had hyperactive deficit attention disorder. However, it didn't excuse the way she talked to me. 

"You know that if your aunt won't accept your request, you'll have to look for another job, right?" Evelyn asked me.

I nodded. I would have heard from my aunt after the Christmas holidays, but I didn't even want to think about it. I had had eight jobs until that moment.

First, I worked at a video game store. Then, in a restaurant. My third and fourth job had been as waiter as well. Then, Mr Barnes took pity on me and asked me to help him in his office. That job didn't last long because he got tired of fixing my mistakes. The same thing happened to the sixth job as well, since it consisted of helping Mrs Barnes as a hairdresser, and I was never very practical. 

Then, I decided to work in the same video game store as before, but I was fired again. 

The reasons why I was fired changed every time. I couldn't respect deadlines, sometimes I got angry and argued with a colleague. Most of the time I had a good attitude, but too impractical and lively for a workplace.

Sometimes I feared that, unconsciously, I looked for a fight until I was fired. There were jobs that I just couldn't keep because of my hyperactivity. I was just too restless. Boredom felt like somebody was breaking all the bones in my body -- it physically hurt.

"Would I be fit to start a career as a babysitter?" I asked, to none in particular.

Nobody replied. Silence spoke louder than words.

For some reason, I was reminded of the weird dreams I'd had the night before.

I had dreamt of a strange shop. I had never been there and it was old and dusty. It sold books and objects that I didn't know the use for. Then I dreamt of a cold, snowy place. Colder than Brighton in winter. Then I dreamt of my birth parents. I always had the same nightmare where I was walking behind them but, when I was about to reach them, they walked away before I could see their face.

"Hi, Ryan," a voice brought me back to reality.

It was the last person I would expect to find at the party. 

Jordan Bates. He used to teach music at my high school. I've always loved rock music and I wasn't a complete disaster at playing guitar. Jordan was nice as well: he never really thought I was weird.

Then, I had an idea. I remembered he talked to us students about the music shop owned by his family where his little brother and parents used to work. I decided I'd ask him if they were looking for someone else to work there. Maybe that could have saved me from working with my aunt.

I took one look at Jordan. He hadn't changed a bit. He still had bleached yellow hair.

I wondered if he was still the same prankster. He often interrupted class to make jokes that never made anyone laugh. He didn't tell us what to play: every student would have to choose their instruments and songs, which was very cool but resulted in a lot of noise. 

I seemed to remember that I was at the party, and at the Christmas parties I never tried to look my best. I was wearing all black and I probably looked drunk. I hoped I could make a good impression on my teacher, if we talked jobs.

Of course, it didn't take me long to realize that he looked even more out of place than I did. He had yellow hair, and he was wearing tartan trousers that looked like pyjamas. He had probably just finished teaching someone because he brought along the case of a musical instrument. From its shape I understood that it was his instrument of choice: a clarinet. He was always more than happy of my choice to spend his lessons butchering Nirvana songs with a guitar, but he was more of a clarinet guy. 

I smiled at him. I hoped my teeth weren't stained of fruit punch.

"What are you doing here, Mr Bates?" I asked.

"I'm dating your aunt, Cornelia."

I refrained from blinking in disbelief. My adoptive mother had a brother, Darren Senior, who was, obviously, my cousin Darren's father. She also had a sister, Cornelia. They looked like Flemish paintings and their heart was cold and distant. I wondered what was Cornelia doing with someone like my teacher.

Since he was a good person, I found myself hoping that this strange relationship would bring happiness to aunt Cornelia. The main thing about her, Evelyn and Darren was that they looked like they never had fun once in their lives.

"You know," I blurted out. "I'm looking for a job, and I thought it would have been nice to work in your shop. If you're looking for someone, that is..."

"I know you liked music," he said. "I seem to remember your favourite singer was Kurt Cobain. But I'd like to know other things about the people I employ, other than their musical taste. Is there anything else you're interested in?"

"Reading, writing," I said, warily. "Tarot cards, books about spirituality and magic, astrology, aura reading..."

"Are you a believer?" he asked me.

I had been to the Arcane Trade enough times to understand he wasn't talking about Jesus or God. It was a phrase people asked you when they wanted to know whether you believed that Enchanters had really lived amongst humans in the past.

I had always thought the phrase was a little corny. I had never known what to reply. But, since I really wanted the job and Mr Bates looked like a believer, I told him that I was one too.

"Boy," he said, grinning stupidly. "I think I have found the perfect job for you."

He handed me a business card. I tried to read what it said. I hoped it was the name of his music shop. No, it was the address of a shop of which the name was written in Latin. I knew all the believers at the Arcane Trade were obsessed with Latin. It was another thing that I found a little corny. Still, I knew why they were all so caught up in it. Latin used to be the language Enchanters spoke before they started speaking English. Then, they disappeared. Most of their old artifacts where written in Latin.

"Go there," he explained. "And you'll understand why I think this place is perfect for you."

I looked at the business card again. The place was called Magicae Items. I felt thrilled at the idea of working in a place that sold Enchanters artifacts. I could always take my time to look at them, find out if they seemed convincing enough to prove that people with powers once lived amongst us.

Then, I realized what my adoptive mother would say about the job, and my smile faded.

"I don't think I can take this job," I said. "It wouldn't sit right with my family."

"They don't believe" my teacher said, matter-of-factly.

There were so many legends, but so little proves. All things considered, the people who believed were almost as many as the people who didn't. But those who believed went to the markets, to the shops. They lived their lives with a foot in the past and one in the present. There wasn't any scientist or a man in the government who believed, or told so publicly. Nobody who wanted to study the Enchanters, find out where they had gone or if they were ever here. The only scientific progress believers ever made was in the field of parallel universes.

Science, they said, was starting to come up with an explanation for those. I had never talked to people who believed they existed, but I had never crossed them off my list of beliefs either.

The people who didn't believe, like my adoptive parents, went on with their lives matter of factly. They said people such as these never existed, and, even if they did, it was nobody's business. At the end of the day, there were as many of them as there were of the others, but it was them who won in everyday life.

Most of the population in the world, did not take a side. Just like I used to do, before Mr Bates asked me.

But when he asked the question, the answer came natural. I believed. I had read too much about it for it not to be true.

And then, belief was a matter of choice. I wanted to believe.

"Well, you can check out the shop for yourself," Mr Bates said. "See if it's your kind of thing."

I nodded. I knew what he was talking about. Most stands at the Arcane Trade and little shops of magic items were very different one from the other. Some of them were so realistic that, if Enchanters still existed, those shops would have looked like the real thing. Others were so fake that it was obvious that the owners wanted to rob you of your money, like my mother said. I obviously preferred the former to the latter.

"If you like it, I'll put in a good word with your aunt Cornelia. She might talk to her sister, make her come around."

I smiled bitterly. 

"My adoptive mother doesn't like to be convinced," I said. The last time she had been convinced, she had decided to take me home even if she hadn't wanted to. I was still paying for it.

"Well, I'll leave you to think about it," Jordan Bates said. "Just know that it's an excellent shop. Very realistic artifacts. The opportunity to work with them is a great chance. A one in a million kind of thing."

I looked at the business card. The thing was, I believed him. The only problem was that I knew how people who didn't believe considered the believers. Working at a magic shop seemed like the kind of thing who would make my adoptive mother disown me. It was both a comforting and a scary thought.

I turned the business card around. There was written something on the back. I squinted my eyes to see. The chicken's scrawl looked like my teacher's handwriting. It must have been something he had added, just for me.

It said, 'you'll find what you're looking for in the land where everything is upside down.'

I tried to call after my teacher, but he was gone. There were too many people crammed inside the house to try and look for him. I would have to wait when there was a chance to meet again him or my aunt. Maybe I could sit near one of them at the Christmas feast.

I was trying to make sense of the words. It looked like a riddle. I had seen many strange things at the Arcane Trade, but nothing had ever been as weird. Because, for the first time, it was directed at me. I had always believed there was magic in the world, or thought about it, but I had always watched from the sidelines. It was not something I wanted to mess with. I knew becoming part of the real believers was something that still divided many families. 

But that riddle, whatever it meant, was destined for me to read. My teacher had brought the business card to the party, I realized, and had written the weird lines on the back. It occurred to me that he would have found any other excuse to give it to me. It was the very reason he was keeping it in his wallet.

I looked at the hours and the days the shop was open. Weirdly enough, it was open on Christmas Eve and even on Christmas day. Most people who believed in magic didn't believe in God, but some did. Still, Christmas is a holiday that everyone in England celebrates one way or the other. It was very odd even for a magic shop not to celebrate it.

I remembered the way Jordan Bates had talked about the shop. He said working with them was a great chance, that many believers would never be asked to. It was probably the most glorious kind of magic shop -- one of those who made you feel like you were still in the Middle Ages, when supposedly Enchanters lived with the rest of us.

I decided that, to gather the courage I needed to ask my adoptive mother to work there, the first day I could go and see the shop was Christmas Eve. It would have been three days from then, not too early and not too late. It felt a bit disrespectful, but not as much as showing up there on Christmas day.

And I would have done that too, if it meant a Christmas day I didn't have to pass with my adoptive mother.

I sat at the table where we had to eat Christmas dinner. I noticed how sad it was that my adoptive parents really spent most of their money to throw that party every year. The guests were many, the food was plenty. I had lost track of Jordan and Cornelia and it didn't seem likely that I would run into them again.

I sat next to my cousins. There were Amanda, Darren and a few other children. I had already teased Darren enough for one day, but I genuinely liked spending my time with Amanda. 

I knew my relatives were not really happy to see me talk to my younger cousins. To them, the fact that I knew how to act around children, meant that I was a little immature myself. Maybe that was true, if having a bubbly personality, liking jokes and being a little lazy were considered immature traits. As for me, I didn't care. There were some children that were inherently better than adults, if anything they had less prejudices. I had many friends my age, and some who were older, but when I sat at the kids table with Amanda and other young cousins, I did not feel as out of place as usual.

When the guests went home, I took another look at the business card. When I read the address, my heart did a little jump. It was on the Inscrutable Road.

The Inscrutable Road is not an officially recognized road, here in Brighton. It's just the name that's been given to an area in the city, almost on the outskirts. It's a road where only those who believe in the Enchanters dwelled. I should have seen it coming -- it was also the road where most magic shops were.

I was about to tell my adoptive parents about the job, when I heard my adoptive mother's voice coming from another room. She was talking to my adoptive father, telling him that she couldn't take it anymore of her life.

She said that she couldn't stand to live in the same house as me anymore. That, as an adult, I should have thought about moving somewhere else. I was lazy, she said, and couldn't keep a job.

Her accusations might have been true, but they stung me just the same. I was also very hard-working when I wanted to, and I wanted to make everybody happy. When my parents fought, I often was the peacemaker. Which was a little stupid, considering most of their fights were about me in the first place.

Still, their argument didn't shock me. I had known for a while that Evelyn Barnes wanted me to leave the house. I had always felt thankful that she hadn't kicked me out in any of our fights. In that moment, though, I didn't know how one could feel thankful towards someone like her.

I slipped the business card into the pocket of my jacket and went to bed early. I didn't need to be kicked out of the house, I thought. Maybe she'll finally have one when I get accepted at a job on the Inscrutable Road. The thought made me sad, but also a bit relieved.

I went to bed, counting down the hours until Christmas Eve. Pretty soon, I will have to see the shop. Maybe I could ask the owners if they knew something about Jordan Bates' riddle.

'You'll find what you're looking for in the land where everything is upside down.'

I wondered how could Jordan Bates know what I was looking for, considering that even I didn't know.


	2. Where I start working at a place where I might not actually get fired

On Christmas Eve I woke up feeling pretty bad. I couldn't stop thinking about depressing things. I had been feeling that way since I heard the argument between my adoptive parents, even though I had never felt really happy as long as I could remember.

I washed my face, brushed my messy dark brown hair, dressed up quickly and headed for the door.

I had already bought gifts for Evelyn and Lucas but maybe I could do something nice before I checked out the shop. Like drinking a mug of hot chocolate. This definitely felt like a great way to celebrate, even though I felt very lonely. I headed towards the city, feeling a little better and hoping to have fun.

When I was just about to walk in a nice place where I could drink, I noticed a little winding road. I had never been there before, but I knew where it lead.

It was a road that lead to the outskirts of town, to the Inscrutable Road.

I followed it, until it led me to the Inscrutable Road. There weren't a lot of shops there. A few of them were magic shops. I noticed Magicae Items at first glance. I realized what Jordan had meant when he said the artifacts looked like they could have been the real thing.

Inside the shop there were strange objects like crystal balls, alembics and old books. The objects looked so realistic that, if Enchanters' existence had been proven, they could have belonged in a museum.

In the windows of the shop, some of the objects were nicely exposed. One of them was a book. It looked ancient, and was very voluminous. The cover looked like any other I had seen before, as if a pattern of flowers had been woven into it. I decided that, if I felt self conscious about asking for the job, I could have walked in with another excuse. I could have asked how much the man who was working inside would charge me for the book.

"Excuse me, how much is this?" I asked the man when I walked in. Up close, he looked weird. I couldn't figure out why, but being around him made me feel in an odd way. I didn't know which emotions his presence caused me, but they weren't good.

"Why, would you buy it?" he asked, smiling. "We are not selling it, but if you wish to have it I could give it to you."

"Why are you not selling it? You displayed there for everyone to see."

"I exposed it to show that I had one," the man replied. "Ask any collectors -- it's a rare item. I would not sell it, unless someone paid a very high price. However, I would gift it to you. On one condition."

"And what that condition would be?" I asked.

The old man began smiling again, but he didn't reply at first.

I heard footsteps behind my back. I turned around and I saw a boy of medium height. He looked as if he was part Asian and part European. He was good-looking, with black hair and curious amber eyes that looked green under certain lights. He had a very youthful face, but he was probably a few years older than me.

The boy smiled at me and said to the old man: "What are you telling this young man, Grandpa? Is he interested in the book?" 

"Anyway", he added, turning to me. "My name is Jeff."

"Hi Jeff, my name is Ryan." Despite my efforts, I probably blushed. I tend to get embarrassed even by the smallest conversations when I'm with strangers.

"Is my grandfather bargaining for the price?" Jeff asked.

"He told me that he'd give me the book for free, if I did him a favour."

"That's how most trades are done on the Inscrutable Road," Jeff commented matter-of-factly. He said it as if he had never been to the Arcane Trade, or any other part of Brighton for that matter.

The older man finally regained his composure.

"You can call me Mister Winter, Ryan," he said. "And if you want, you can keep this book. I'll tell you what you need to do for me, though. Take the book and try to read it."

I read out loud some interesting story about the legend of an old Enchanter, dead many centuries before. Some believed he kept on living by possessing the souls of Enchanters who practised black magic and that he controlled all their actions. 

"It's strange that the book decided to show you this part," Mister Winter was thinking aloud. "These are weird beliefs, only the men who call themselves Traditionalists think this is true. I wonder if there's a reason for this..."

Jeff, on the other hand, looked very happy, but he looked like one of those people whose personality was shy but vibrant.

"Are you saying that it was the book's choice to show me this?" I asked, doubtful. I also wanted to ask him who the Traditionalists were, but I decided to stick with one question at a time.

"Not only," Mister Winter replied smiling. "But I'm also saying that I don't know many people who would be able to read this. It's written in a very particular ink."

I wondered why Mr Winter and his grandson were acting so strangely. At the Arcane Trade, there wasn't such a thing as books written in particular ink. All the books were written in a way everyone could read them. Nothing about the artifacts was magical at all, unless you believed they had belonged to Enchanters.

"I.. I don't know what to say," I replied truthfully. "I have no particular power. We both know the only people with powers were Enchanters, that's it if they existed at all. I don't know why I'm able to read this particular kind of ink and other people aren't."

I wasn't doubting the man's words. If you believed magic had existed, and had many reasons to do so, you started believing other weird things might have possible too. When you were at the Arcane Trade, sometimes some things were too bizarre to be believed, but you put your faith in it anyway. That's what believing in the Enchanters was.

"To be honest," I added. "I walked in here looking for a job."

"Ah. I see," the old man said, stroking his beard. "But we're not looking for more employees."

"I've been told by a person I know that you were looking for someone like me" I said

"Not at all" Jeff replied sure.

"Well, we might have been", his grandfather cut him off, as if he was only now remembering something. "If that's the case, you can start working right now."

The whole thing seemed a little off, but I was okay with it. Finally, a job I could hope to keep.

When I started sitting behind the counter, Jeff sneaked up to me.

"I know it might sound strange," he said. "But you know how it is on the Inscrutable Road. This shop doesn't have a lot of clients. It's mostly my grandfather and I all the time. So, don't despair if we don't make a lot of money at the end of the month. We're still going to pay you."

"Jeff!" his grandfather yelled. "Don't start telling the boy weird things."

I looked at Jeff, and made a funny face that was meant to discredit his grandfather's words. I didn't know why but, even though I liked the place, I wasn't getting a good vibe from Mr Winter.

I got that feeling from people sometimes. As a nerd for everything magic, I knew that this feeling was called claircognizance. Basically, it's like a superpower where your gut is able to tell you when something just feels wrong. And usually, my feelings often proved to be true.

"Okay, I'll stop bothering you," Jeff told me. "But just know that I might not be able to contain my excitement. My grandfather might have been expecting a new employee, but I wasn't."

"Don't you want to see what we're selling in this shop, young man?" Mr Winter asked.

"I already know about everything you sell here," I replied, proud. "The tarot cards, the alembics for the potions, the alchemic stuff... the only thing I didn't know about was the book with peculiar ink, but I must say it is very original if you came up with that."

"The way I see it, you know nothing about what we sell here" the old man replied, a disgusted look in his eyes. "These things belonged to Enchanters. I thought you were a believer, otherwise why would you be here?"

"I'm only here because I live with my grandfather," Jeff tried to joke. "No, actually, I believe too."

"Do you live with him?" I asked him. Maybe Jeff was an orphan, like me.

"Yes, I do. I live with him and other seven people, actually. Our house is very crowded."

Mister Winter did not look too happy to overshare the details of their lives.

"That's... peculiar" I said. My mind isn't always connected to my brain when I speak.

"You don't have to talk about it," Mister Winter told Jeff and I thought what he really meant was you mustn't talk about it. But Jeff did not take the hint.

"I'd like to tell you all about our family," he told me excitedly. "There are Alice and Jake who are like a younger sister and a younger brother to me. Except they aren't, because Jake has been adopted. The only family I've got left is my Grandpa and Alice's only remaining family member is her mother Flora."

"Who adopted Jake?" I asked, even though I could feel Mr Winter's gaze on me behind my back and I didn't like it.

"All the adults in the family," Jeff replied, beaming. "Which are my Grandpa, Flora and a couple of other women, Ohda and Lucretia. There's also a couple of boys a bit older than us, Bill and Sean."

"Are some of these people dating or related to each other?" I asked, because I had hardly felt more confused in my whole life.

"Ohda is younger than Lucretia, and we all think she likes Bill," he said. "But we don't know for sure. Sean is kind of a loner, maybe he's not into anyone at all. And Lucretia doesn't like to show her feelings, but I think sometimes she fancies herself as Jake's mum."

"That's enough!" Mister Winter tried to stop him.

"Oh no, please go on," I said. "I'm actually finding it rather interesting."

I wasn't much for gossip, but I was curious. I liked hearing about other people's lives. I also found it somewhat funny when Mr Winter got angry at Jeff for oversharing. Maybe it was because my first impression of the old man hadn't been favourable.

"How old are you?" I asked Jeff then. "I'm twenty years old."

"I'm twenty-five" Jeff replied, and I did my best not show how shocked I was. He looked and spoke like he was much younger than that. And not because he was stupid, I realized, but because he reminded me of Peter Pan. Someone who would never grow up.

"Jake is twenty, just like you," he added. "I think you two would get along well. Maybe I can tell him to come to the shop and meet you."

"Please, Jeffrey, don't" Mister Winter said. "The last thing we need right now is for Jake to come to the shop."

Just when I was about to ask what was wrong with Jake, a costumer entered the shop.

He had a yellow scarf and a green sweater. He was also wearing blue jeans with Doc Martens. He did not look like anyone who would be into magic at all. But he did not look like the guy next door either.

When he saw me behind the counter, he stopped in his tracks. He had a crazed look in his eyes.

"Who's the new guy?" he asked, panting.

"Just someone who's been recommended to us" Mr Winter replied, confident. But the other man did not look convinced.

"I've never seen him around" he said, almost accusative.

"I'm sure you have" Mr Winter snarled back. "You just don't remember right now."

I felt like my presence in the shop was not appreciated. I also felt like you had to be a member of some kind of secret society to be able to work on the Inscrutable Road. A secret society I had never heard the name of.

"Are you sure he is a believer?" the customer asked.

"Well, what else could he be?" Mr Winter replied.

"Still, I won't buy anything from him," the customer said, looking at me like I disgusted him. He turned around and left the store.

I must have looked pretty shocked, because even Jeff tried to cheer me up.

"Don't worry" he said. "I've told you, we're still paying you."

"What did that guy want from me?" I asked.

"It's just..." Mr Winter muttered. I had never seen him look so unsure. 

"Is there something wrong with me?" I asked.

"Not at all," Mister Winter replied, even though he looked at me like he was sizing me up. "You just look... well, to be honest, you look fairly normal to be someone who works here. On the Inscrutable Road, people buy things from believers. The real deal. He was just upset he's never seen you around."

"Other than the Arcane Trade, I don't know where believers gather," I replied. "Also,I wish I was as normal as you say."

"That's a terrible thing to wish for" Jeff said naively. Maybe I had something to learn from him.

I decided to take a look at some of the objects we were selling in the shop when I had the weirdest sensation. For the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged. Like I was at home. I've always felt all my life like I was a bird in a cage. I had the opinion that I was at the wrong place at the wrong time, just that the wrong time meant approximately twenty years. My whole life felt like a mistake or a stupid prank somebody was playing on me. No, worse. My whole life felt like some sort of punishment for something I did or could have done.

"What are you thinking about, Ryan?" Jeff asked. It sounded like a direct reaction to my thoughts. But of course, there was no way he could know what I was thinking. Not wanting to tell the truth, I decided to improvise.

"I was thinking that you're nice," I said. The way I was feeling was due in part to the fact that Jeff was treating me like a long time friend. "It would have been cool to have met you before. Like at school. You're older than me, though, so it wouldn't have worked."

"I have been homeschooled," Jeff said matter-of-factly. "And so have Alice and Jake."

I started asking myself what kind of trouble I had gotten myself into. They really looked like some kind of secret society. But they couldn't be. I would have thought they were Amish, with their talks of Traditionalism and their reclusive lifestyle. But it didn't make sense -- they believed in the existence of magic, of the Enchanters.

"Homeschooled, huh?" I asked. I should have expected this.

"I decided it was for the best," Mr Winter said. "Like Jeff said, I adopted him. Both of his parents died when he was five years old. I am the one who need to take care of his education, and I found homeschooling to be the best method for a family like ours."

"I have been adopted too," I said, not sure what to reply.

"Have you?" Jeff asked.

I nodded. "I live with my adoptive family, Evelyn and Lucas Barnes," I said. 

"Do you like living with them?"

"I don't," I decided to tell the truth. "Some days, I hate it. I know adoptive families are supposed to be just like the other ones -- I'm thinking about adopting children too, one day."

Mister Winter looked at me weirdly, so I decided to proceed.

"Evelyn, my adoptive mother, is the worst. Sometimes she looks at me and I see nothing in her eyes. No love, no hatred, just nothing. And she can say the meanest things to me. Lucas is a passive aggressive kind of man, and he tries his best to be like a father to me. But we don't really get along."

"You dislike your family that much?" Mr Winter asked. He said it as if it said more about me than it said about them.

I shrugged. "Well, maybe dislike is a strong word. But I don't feel at ease with them. The holidays are the worst. I see you're open on Christmas day. Mind if I join you? I wouldn't mind working instead of celebrating Christmas with them."

"Well, if that isn't strange, I don't know what is" Mister Winter replied, as if to wipe away all the doubts I could have about his family. 

"I thought all believers worked on Christmas day" Jeff said.

Maybe they did, on the Inscrutable Road. It wasn't like the Arcane Trade. I had been there a lot of times. But, when it came to that road, I was no expert.

"We're not religious," Mr Winter explained. "We didn't raise Jeff to know about this stuff."

Then, he shifted his attention to his grandson. "Do you know there are some believers who believe in religion too? Like the Christian ones who come into this shop?"

Jeff nodded.

"Well, they celebrate Christmas too, because it's Jesus' birthday."

And just like that, he was done explaining.

"You don't have to worry, then" Jeff told me. "We work on Jesus' birthday as well."

"It's such a pity you don't like your family, Ryan" Mister Winter commented as if he really cared.

"Well, maybe it is for you" I replied, trying to hide the bitterness. "You must love your very extended family very much."

I still felt uneasy, talking to him. It was like my brain wanted to pick a fight with him, like it didn't trust him.

I looked at the books that the store sold, just to pass the time. There were a lot of books -- it was one of the main attraction of Magicae Items. The books had been divided in three huge categories.

"Enchanters, elves and fairies" I read aloud.

"Gee, you're picky" I added then. "Why not vampires, werewolves or angels while you're at it?"

Enchanters, in their legends, were often mentioned along with fairies and elves. Still, I had read stories at the Arcane Trade that mentioned other types of supernatural creatures. The only thing believers were convinced of, was the existence of Enchanters. I had never heard any of them debating the existence of the other creatures.

"Do you actually believe in all of these things?" I asked, since I was getting no reply. "Elves and fairies too?"

"Of course I do," Jeff replied eagerly. "Enchanters used to be all over Britain and, in general, all over the world! Elves used to be located in Germany and other German-speaking countries, but over the time they've moved here as well. And fairies only live in the Fay realm, but I know for a fact they exist."

"He likes role-playing" Mr Winter explained sourly. "He only believes in Enchanters."

It didn't seem to me like Jeff was role-playing. 

I looked at him with my eyes open wide and a very stupid expression on my face.

Mister Winter gestured to Jeff to follow him to a back room. He probably wanted to scold him.

I looked around a bit more in the book section of the shop. I wondered if they all had been written with that funny ink that looked just like any other printing to me. When suddenly, I had the weirdest sensation that I had already seen the shop before. It looked just like the old shop in my dreams.

I was about to scream or to make a run for the door, when Jeff and his grandfather returned from the back of the shop. Jeff already looked different -- more serious, more composed. Adult-like.

I heard my phone buzzing. I had received a message.

Mister Winter might have noticed I was looking at my phone, because he said: "Go ahead, read it."

"It's from my adoptive mother" I replied. I hated how my voice was shaking. "She says that she and my adoptive father don't want to spend Christmas with me. She says I'm only an embarrassment for the whole family and I pick too many fights. She urges me to find somewhere to work and a place to live during the Christmas holidays."

Jeff and his grandfather looked at me with pity but didn't know how to reply to that. It somehow managed to make me feel more humiliated and angry. I started sobbing silently. My head ached.

And then I heard the sound of the wind howling. I looked out in the street, concerned. There was a whirlwind, almost like a little hurricane in the street. If my eyes had been playing tricks on me, then all of my other senses were doing the same. I could feel the breeze on my skin and I heard the windows of the shop opening and letting the air in.

But the weirdest thing is that the whirlwind lasted for no more than a few minutes. As soon as I started getting scared and my fear replaced my anger, everything stopped.

"Did you see it too?" I asked Jeff and Mister Winter, out of breath.

I didn't need a confirmation to know they had seen it. They were pale in the face, and they looked at me, worried. Like out of their mind worried.

Then, slowly, Mister Winter spoke up.

"Since you're not welcome to spend Christmas with your family, come to our house tonight. We will let you stay with us tomorrow."

"But..." I tried to say. I was confused. I thought Mister Winter didn't want me to meet his weird family.

"This is an emergency", he said. "I'm afraid we have no choice but to let you stay with us."

I was scared to death, so I didn't stop to think I would have to live with these strange people I didn't even know. I had nowhere to go.

I couldn't help but accept.

Jeff and his grandfather led me to the back room of the shop, the one where they had gone to talk before. It wasn't a room but an aisle with many mirrors on all sides. I wondered what they were there for. 

"He's never going to understand," Jeff said. I didn't follow them until the very end of the aisle. 

"He has to," Mr Winter replied. "He's a believer. He's used to weird things. He already knows magic exists. Also, he might be something else too. Something other than human. He was able to read the ink in the book."

I shuddered at their words. One thing was believing magic had existed, a long time ago. Most people did. Another thing was hearing words such as these about yourself. It wasn't a common experience, or one that I was looking forward to.

I tried to follow Jeff and Mr Winter down the aisle. It wasn't easy, with all the mirrors looking back at me. In some my reflection looked weird, but I tried not to stare at it too much.

When I got to the end of the aisle, the old man and his grandson had disappeared. I felt a knot in my throat. I would have gone back home, if I had a home to go back to.

The thing was, I understood what had happened. It felt weird, weirder than the old legends about magic. It felt like something impossible. But it had happened, which meant that it was real. Very real.

One would have expected about anything to happen on the Inscrutable Road, but not that.

The aisle ended in a dead end. There was only a mirror, that looked much more ancient than the others.

I remembered what Jordan Bates had scribbled on the business card.

You'll find what you're looking for in the land where everything is upside down.

I thought I finally knew what it meant.

I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and walked into the mirror.


	3. Where I manage to make a mess but I don't lose my job

As it turned out, in the land where everything was upside down, nothing was really upside down.

Jordan had only called it that way to make me understand that it was hiding behind the mirror.

Even for someone who believed in the legends of the Enchanters, knowing that there was a different world behind a mirror and that I had been able to cross it, was a lot to take in.

Still, I needed to find Mr Winter and his grandson fast. They had said weird things about me. I had heard them saying that I was not human -- that there was a reason why I was able to read that book.

The city behind the mirror looked a lot like Brighton, but it wasn't the Brighton I lived in. It was smaller -- it was easy to see, because it resembled more a village than a city. If I squinted my eyes, I could not see the sea. This made me feel a bit nauseous. I could not understand the limits nor the size of this city. I decided that I would have to ask Mr Winter, if I even found him again.

I walked a few roads. It was not lost on me that some of the weird things I was seeing, like a recipe that consisted of a fried sausage that you could eat on a stick, or some fashion choices, were things I had already seen at the Arcane Trade.

Thankfully, I bumped into Jeff Winter pretty fast. Not only the city was smaller, there were not as many people on the streets either.

"Here you are, thankfully!" Jeff said. "My grandfather counted on you to understand that you had to cross the mirror on your own. Honestly? I bet against you. I thought it was impossible. But... here you are! You should probably come to our house."

Jeff tried to pull my sleeve, but I dug my heels in.

"I'm not going anywhere," I said. "Until you explain to me where I am, and how I can come back to the world I was living in before."

Jeff sighed. Maybe I didn't have anything left in the other Brighton, I certainly was not welcome in my house anymore, but I felt like he owed to me to explain how I could come back. I had read about parallel realms in the Arcane Trade -- some people even sold maps where you could see the ley lines. But I had never made up my mind whether it was one of the things I believed in or not. Being in a parallel universe with no road leading me back home was starting to bother me.

"You just have to pass through a mirror," Jeff said. "Any mirror would do. Now, in the human realm, only some mirrors are enchanted. But in the Aether realm, all the mirrors are enchanted."

My throat was starting to feel very dry. I had read countless of strange things. I believed some of them. Most people in the world believed at least in a small percentage that magic had existed.

However, nobody had ever told me magic could still exist in the present. And I had never read or heard of a place called the Aether realm in my entire life.

"Let's make a deal," Jeff said, noticing my expression. "Come to our house. I promise we won't harm you. If it's an explanation you seek, we'll explain everything. Then, when we're done explaining, you can cross any mirror and you'll be back to your world."

"I wish it was a nightmare," I said. "But it's not. Is it? I am a lucid dreamer. If I concentrate on a detail long enough, I can will myself to wake up. And it's not happening."

"Come on, where's your sense of adventure?" Jeff smirked. "I thought you were a believer!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" I said. "There's a limit to what you can believe."

"Is there?" Jeff asked. "You believe magic existed. Why would it stop existing all of a sudden? Think about it."

Since Jeff made an excellent point, I followed him to his house. It was on the outskirts of town, confirming what I had thought before -- the other Brighton was certainly smaller than the one I was used to.

As soon as I entered the door, I found seven faces staring at me. I could see different reactions -- shocked, angry, enthusiastically happy. But none of them looked surprised. Not in the slightest.

A young boy, near my age, caught my attention. He greeted me like he was incredibly happy to get to know me. He was tall and handsome, and he had brown hair and amber eyes.

"My name is Jake Kingston, and I am twenty years old," he said. The way he said it sounded rehearsed, like he wasn't used to making conversation.

"Hi, Jake" I replied, a little dumbfounded. "My name is Ryan Barnes and I'm twenty years old as well."

"I thought so," he replied mysteriously. "If you want to know anything about us or about the way we live, please ask."

He looked even happier than Jeff did about meeting somebody new.

"Of course," I replied, taken aback. I thought about it for a while, then I decided to ask:

"I'd like to know what is this strange world Jeff called Aether realm. And why you don't act like we do in the human world. You live crammed in one house, you are homeschooled. Are you part of a cult?"

"Even if we were, we couldn't tell you" he joked. "And about the Aether realm... well, I think Mr Winter will want to explain it to you personally."

"How do you even manage to live in the same house, all seven of you?" I grimaced. 

"We help each other out, that's all. The other young boys you see here, Bill and Sean, take care of the garden and paint the walls respectively. Flora, the red-headed woman, cooks for us. Every one of us must do something to keep the family going. The woman with long dark hair is called Ohda and she takes care of the house and its decorations, while the brunette, Lucretia, is like our accountant. Basically, she manages the money. Jeff and his grandfather work in the shop, and I clean the house," he smiled at me. "Nobody ever believes it, but I love cleaning."

"What about the young girl?" I asked, without thinking before opening my mouth. There was something mysterious about her -- her body language showed that she didn't want to freak me out. It was almost as if she knew more than the others about humans and our realm.

"Oh, Alice? She's still very young, she's only 17 years old, and she hasn't found her talent yet. But she will, soon enough. She's Flora's daughter, but unlike her mother she doesn't like cooking."

I looked at the girl, and she replied with a shy smile.

One of the young men held out his hand so I could shake it. He wasn't much older than me, but he was already an adult. He had brown locks and beautiful brown eyes -- he said his name was Sean. The man who always hang around him told me his name as well; he was Bill, just as I had imagined. Bill had dark brown hair and green eyes, and he looked similar to Jeff and Mister Winter. Similar enough to make me ask whether he was related to them.

When I sat at the table to eat dinner, I noticed there was something weird. Nobody had asked me why I was there -- they just trusted Mr Winter that I was an addition to their strange family. They didn't inquire why. I found it extremely suspicious and it left me wondering whether I should haven't visited them in the first place. Maybe I still had time to go back to the human realm, forget this ever happened, start looking for another job and another house. But it was easier said than done.

"Have you all introduced yourselves to our new young friend?" Mister Winter asked the members of the family once we sat at the table together. Then, he whispered, "Please, try to act properly."

It was a low whisper, but I heard it.

I figured none of them had been rude, at least not yet, so he had probably noticed their odd lack of questions about my presence.

"I still haven't got to know the three women in the family" I said.

"You've known Alice," Jake said.

"Alice is only a little girl" a brunette woman with a pixie cut scolded him, but she used a motherly tone. I remembered Jeff had told me about a woman who fancied herself as Jake's new mother -- her name was Lucretia. "She's seventeen" Lucretia explained to me. "And by the way, nice to meet you. My name is Lucretia."

I looked at her. She was diminutive and her hair made her look like a fairy -- or like Audrey Hepburn. Actually, I had no idea what fairies looked like, so I decided to settle for Audrey Hepburn. Her skin was pale and she had a lot of freckles. When looking at me, she didn't lower her gaze once.

"My name is Ohda" a very attractive dark haired woman with light brown skin said. "I'm Bill's girlfriend."

She exchanged a glance with Bill. You could clearly see in their eyes how much they loved each other.

"My full name is Ohda Bukhari," she added then. "My family is from Pakistan."

I appreciated the fact that she was the first person who let me know her surname as well. She must have been a logical person, if she was the first to guess how out of place I was feeling.

A gorgeous woman with red lips and bright red hair tied in a ponytail entered the living room right at that moment.

"I'm sorry I couldn't greet you before!" she said. "Hi, I'm Flora. It's nice to see a new face around here."

"My name is Ryan Barnes, nice to meet you all," I said. "And in case you're wondering why I'm here, well, let's just say that I've started working with Mr Winter today. Then, he asked me to come to this house because I was kicked out of my own. But..."

I took a deep breath. "I still don't understand how all of this is possible... The mirror..."

"Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough there have been cases of humans who crossed the mirror before," Lucretia said. "It's really not so bad. Some of you decided to stay all of their lives here."

"He's not a human," Mr Winter snapped. "They need to be enchanted to be able to cross the mirror. He crossed it on his own."

"Well, he believes he is, and that's close enough," Lucretia said. "I just wanted to re-assure him, that's all."

I didn't know if I felt comforted. I knew they lived in a parallel universe and were not humans, but it still didn't explain why they all knew I was coming. Or who they were, and why they lived in this other version of Brighton.

That evening, I decided to talk to Jeff. Nobody had told me anything yet.

"That was not our deal," I reminded him. "I needed to know more about you before I crossed a mirror, and nobody told me anything yet."

"Well, you can always cross a mirror now," Jeff smiled. "We have one, in our house. It leads directly to the mirror in the shop."

I clenched my fist.

"You don't understand," I said. "I can't go back to my realm, as if nothing happened. I want to know who you are."

"Well, then you'll understand that my grandfather thought he should know if we can trust you before he tells us who we are."

"He has to!" I complained. "He keeps saying I'm not a human. It was him who told me to follow him when he crossed the mirror."

"Oh, he will explain," Jeff said. "He just needs to know when you're ready first."

The night, before I went to bed, my only consolation was the book I had bought in the shop. It was a very strange book, but strange enough to keep me hooked. The book really challenged my short span of attention. I couldn't seem to read it from the start to the end and every time I opened it, it showed me only fragments. The names of the creatures in the books were the ones I had read before -- elves, fairies, Enchanters.

Mr Winter had been kind enough to buy me a couch where I could sleep on, and we placed it in Jeff's room. It was easier to use than a bed, and cheaper, he said. He explained that if you have to buy the bed you also have to buy the mattress and the bed sheets, while it's not quite the same thing with a couch. Not that I had any say in all of this. I seriously had my doubts, but that night I slept better than I ever slept in my entire life.

The morning after I woke up feeling very different emotions. I was annoyed, because it was my first Christmas with people I didn't know and where I couldn't get any gifts. Not that I loved the gifts my adoptive parents picked out for me. But I was also relieved, because for once I didn't have to celebrate with my adoptive family and their stuck up relatives. The night before I had sent a message to Lucas and Evelyn, letting them know that one of my friends had offered me to crash at his place.

When I ate breakfast with the rest of the family, I couldn't help but look a bit sad of how things turned out. Also, it had dawned on me that I was in a different realm, with a family I did not know. It had always been possible that the alternative universes I read about were true, but I had never thought it likely.

"Why is Ryan sad?" Alice asked. I didn't really like the way everyone hovered around me, as if they had to study my feelings. It made me feel even more miserable.

"Because today it's Christmas," Jeff replied. "And he can't celebrate with his family." Jeff was a little less annoying than the rest of them, but I didn't like how he prided himself of being the one who knew me best.

"What is Christmas?" Sean asked.

"Dude, no, not you too" I couldn't help but say. "Don't take it to heart, Jeff, but Sean looks more... well, he's older."

He wasn't much older. He just looked like he had been around and had more competence than Jeff but I didn't know how to say it without using words that could hurt my new friend.

Sean didn't reply, but he looked at me grumpily. In the meantime, Jeff explained to him what Christmas was using about the same terms that had been used when it was explained to him. Basically, it was a sucky explanation, but everybody nodded and pretended that they had understood.

"People usually exchange gifts during Christmas," I said. "But it doesn't matter if I get none. Yesterday Mr Winter gave me this amazing book for free!"

Flora gasped. "Can you read it?" she asked.

I nodded glumly. "It was how Mr Winter understood I was not human."

I grimaced. It still felt unreal. At the same time, Jeff was right. If magic had existed once, it was very logical and possible that it had to exist in the present too.

"Oh, poor thing" Lucretia said, looking at me in the special way everybody else looked at me. As if I wasn't even a person -- as if I really was a poor thing. "He wants gifts!"

"You didn't even pack your bags when you came here, did you?" she asked me then. "It must hurt being away from home and not having your favourite things here."

"I'll come back to my old house sometimes next week, to get them" I replied. "Of course, in case next week I'll still be here."

"I have a feeling that you will" Jake said confidently. "You'll see -- this is a house where every misfit belongs. You'll feel right at home."

While the words Jake were saying didn't do much to wipe away my doubts, I found out that I had the desire to know him better. He had a warm presence. He knew how to make people feel at ease.

While we sat around the table to eat lunch, Bill couldn't help but say:

"I'm sorry, kid. This must have not been the Christmas you had imagined."

I was about to say No, gosh, this is exactly the Christmas I'd always imagined. Eating roast turkey at a table with nine strangers who lived in a parallel universe. But I figured sarcasm was not the answer. Even though this universe was one where there were people who belonged like they were part of some weird ass cult, they were all incredibly nice.

"It's better than what I usually get, that's true," I said. "I don't like being around my adoptive family. I feel... misplaced. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's exactly how I feel. And at least my adoptive father tries his best to include me in the conversations, even though he doesn't get me at all. My adoptive mother is a stone hearted woman and don't even get me started on my uncles, aunts and cousins..."

I noticed that everybody was staring at me, so I stopped talking. I usually don't mind being the centre of the attention, but this time it felt weird. They looked at me as if they'd been wanting to study what it was like to be like me -- to be human. Assuming I was human at all.

"Do you... does any of you ever wish you lived in the human realm?" I found myself asking. I wanted to make small talk with Alice, Jake and Jeff, but perhaps I didn't phrase it correctly.

It didn't sound like the nicest of questions. Sadly, I'm not the nicest of guys. Sometimes, I don't think before I speak.

"I wish we had all the technological advances you had, and that there were as many people on this side as there are on yours. Maybe it would be easier to know people my age," Jeff replied. He looked a little hurt.

"We are just like humans where it counts" Lucretia said.

"Not all of us live crammed in a house. Maybe someday we'll move out and build families of our own," Ohda said, holding Bill's hand. I wondered why they said someday, what was keeping them here. Or who.

"I have my daughter, and she's all I need," Flora replied.

"Of course I'd like to live in a different situation, no matter the realm," Jake said suddenly. "Do you think me stupid?" 

I didn't know him well, but I could tell this was a usual reaction from him. Maybe because everybody in the room looked at him, shocked.

"Jake..." Lucretia said, trying to hold his hand. But he moved away from her.

"Ryan, you don't have to inquire about our curious lifestyle," Mister Winter said, like he was scolding me. "You're just going to turn us against one another. Living like this is all we can do for now. Don't ask questions if you think that you won't be able to understand the answers."

"The only reasons I don't understand the answers is 'cause you're keeping me against my will," I replied instinctively. I liked every member of the family, but I couldn't refrain from disliking Mister Winter.

"I'm not keeping you prisoner," he replied. "You can cross the mirror we have in the living room any moment you'd like. We could also do something to make you forget this has ever happened."

I flinched. "I'm pretty sure it's illegal."

"It's not illegal in this realm," he said. 

"Don't talk like that to the new boy!" Ohda said. I was grateful, but I would have been more grateful if she had taken the time to remember my name.

"He disrespected us first," Mister Winter said. "When he asked that question about humans. He doesn't know everything about us yet. He must think it's very uncomfortable to live in small clans, like we do here..."

His voice broke, like he was remembering something bad about his past.

"It doesn't matter," he said then. "I'll give you all the answers, Ryan. I just wanted to make sure you were ready. See, we can't have people who go to the human side and tell the humans things about us. Living in a parallel universe wouldn't make much sense, then. We do this to hide from them."

"But you worked in the human realm, on the Inscrutable Road," I said.

"Most of us work there, but we don't frequent the humans," Lucretia said. "Sometimes we go shopping, but that's about it. None of us go to their schools, or go to their churches or their local events. That's why you're so important. You're one of a kind, and we can't let you get away before we understand what you were doing there."

"Tell me everything, then," I said. "I'm tired and I want to go home. I promise I won't betray your trust."

"There's something we need to understand first," Mr Winter said. "See, the way things are now, you either go back with your memory wiped or go back before we explain things. It's the same thing, really. You won't remember either way. But if you stay, which is what I was hoping for when I asked you to follow me, you need to stay with us a while first. There's one thing we still need to check.."

I couldn't see any option that would suit me. While I did my best to contain my rage, I felt what I usually feel when I lose control. My fists shaking, my throat dry and a weird sensation of letting go of a heavy feeling that weighed on my chest. Weirdly enough, I also felt immense strength. When I was a little boy, I thought this meant I could be able to do anything. Smash things to the ground. Using a superpower. Whatever.

I felt everybody's faces turned to me. It was enough to make me flush, but it did nothing to stop my rage. If anything, it made me feel conscious that I was in a place where I had never been before. A strange place that might had been hostile. And because of what? Because my adoptive mother kicked me out of the house? I didn't have time to think about that yet. Sometimes I shut my brain down because I don't want to think about certain things, and it always works. The only downside is that every time I'm reminded of these things, I feel twice the pain.

Unable to control what I was holding inside any longer, I let out a scream. Outside of the house I could feel the wind roaring as fiercely as it did the day before outside the shop. The whirlwind made the door and the windows slam, so hopefully nobody heard me yelling. I couldn't help but wonder, though I knew it was not logical, whether the wind was one of the things that happened when I felt enraged. Like the water moving or the lights shutting down. But there was no way it wasn't a coincidence. It was only wind, right? Southern England can be windy from time to time.

Or at least, that's what I thought. Until the wind, or some other invisible force, managed to break the windows and spread shards of glass all over the living room. Sean and Ohda yelled, Bill got away from the table. Alice was looking at me with her eyes wide, as if there wasn't any doubt in her mind that this whole thing was my fault. Jeff and Jake seemed to agree, considering that they looked at me half amused and half afraid.

When one of the shards of glass got into my hand (don't ask me how, it seemed like they were almost flying around the room), I felt more afraid than enraged. Just like the last time, the hurricane stopped. This time, however, the lights went out leaving the whole house in the dark.

I didn't know how all of this could possibly be my fault. 

I was thinking of all of the ways I could have taken advantage of the darkness to sneak out of the house. I was thinking that I could try to make my way for the living room and the mirror, when a candle lit up in the dark. Lucretia had managed to light the first one, and now Flora was handing a candle to everyone in the house. 

They did not look scared. At least, not as scared as they should have been. And I couldn't help but admire their brains for not being in fight-or-flight mode. They worked as a team even under pressure, and they had no trouble in doing so.

"I... I'm sorry," I sobbed. "I know it doesn't make any sense, but I know I did it. It's my fault. These kinds of things always happen to me when I'm angry."

Lucretia told me to hold out my hand, and she started medicating it.

"So, you're aware that you're the one who's responsible for all of this," Jake commented. "Maybe we can trust you with our secrets as well." I couldn't tell whether he was joking or not.

"I know it's not possible," I explained stubbornly. "And I've been trying for years to think it didn't mean anything. That every little thing that happened to me was only a coincidence. But after what happened yesterday outside the shop and what happened today... I can't keep this secret any longer. You were all here -- you saw what happened. You know it can't be a common whirlwind."

"Ryan, darling, relax," Flora told me. "The thing is, we believe you. Not only that, but we know exactly what happened to you. We've always known. We just thought we should have waited to tell you. But now that you're telling us that you think it's all your fault..."

She looked around at the other people in the room. Mister Winter looked unsurprisingly displeased. Even though if there was someone who had any right to be angry, it was me. True, I might have destroyed his house, but I was also being told by a strange group of people that they knew the truth about all of the accidents I had caused. I wasn't looking forward to hearing it. Something told me that it was going to be something mind-blowing. Something life changing and possibly weirder than anything else I could come up with.

But I hadn't imagined anything. Not this time, at least. My hand was still hurting. The windows were still broken. Even the shards of glass were still on the floor and over all the room, and I couldn't bare to look at them without feeling guilty. The only good thing was that, except for me, nobody else got hurt.

"I'll take care of the windows," Mister Winter said reluctantly. He must have followed my gaze to see what I was looking at.

"When can we tell him?" Jake asked, almost bouncing up and down. I immediately felt sick. Suddenly, I didn't know if I wanted to hear the explanation anymore.

"Don't bother to tell me anything" I said, managing to get back on my feet and heading for the living room. "Mister Winter will probably fire me after what happened today. I'm incredibly sorry I ruined your house. Nice house, by the way. This is the last you'll see of me. You can also wipe my memory with your strange methods, for all I care."

Somehow, the hurricane freaked me out more than crossing the mirror did. I could, with an enormous stretch of my belief, admit that it was possible that multiple universes existed. But I could not admit that I might not have been human after all. Every time they had accused me, it always felt like a lie.

"You're not leaving," Mister Winter said matter-of-factly. Everyone turned their heads to look at him. 

"And by the way," he added, his icy cold expression fixed on me. "You're not fired either. If anything, you've got yourself a promotion. After everything that happened today, you can work at my shop for how many years you would like to."

"Don't bother. I'm leaving now," I said.

"I'm afraid that's impossible" Sean commented. He was looking worriedly at the mirror in the aisle.

I tried to cross the mirror, but it wouldn't let me. "No kidding, Sherlock" I replied. "Something is blocking it. It doesn't let me pass."

"If you really wish to go..." Mr Winter said, making a weird gesture with his hand.

I tried to cross the mirror. I didn't go through to the other side, but it let me pass again.

"I don't understand... how?" I asked panting. "I'm sure it didn't work about a second ago."

"You can leave forever and not come back even though you don't have a house or a job," Mr Winter said. I am not sure whether he cared that it sounded like a threat. "Or you can stay here, and we can tell you everything, including why all of those weird things happen to you."

"Okay," I sighed. Since I was a child, I had always been a believer of some sort. For the first time, I had found myself an adventure nobody ever had in the books I'd read. Multiple universes existed. Magic existed, and not everything about it was a con or a coincidence like my adoptive mother said. 

"I guess there's no easy way to tell you this" Ohda said. "Ryan, you're an Enchanter."

"I thought they disappeared," I said. "They... they don't exist anymore."

"They shouldn't exist anymore, in the human realm," Lucretia said. "Which is where we found you." She still looked suspicious.

"Is that a bad thing, that I was in the human realm?" I asked, because I couldn't tell if it was from their expressions. "Can... can you help me?"

"Of course we can" Jeff replied. "Because you see, the great thing is that you're finally home. Welcome to the Aether realm, where Enchanters like us went into hiding after the Middle Ages."


End file.
